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Achieving Legitimacy: Exploring Strategic Actions at Incorporation : A Directed Content Analysis with Social Enterprises in the United Kingdom
Gondzik, A. (2016) Achieving Legitimacy: Exploring Strategic Actions at Incorporation : A Directed Content Analysis with Social Enterprises in the United Kingdom.
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| Abstract: | In developed economies, social enterprises tend to operate in local areas characterised by resource scarcity. Overcoming their constrained access to resources poses many challenges especially to newly incorporated social ventures because they additionally need to overcome their inherent liabilities of newness. Existing knowledge advises new ventures to utilise proactive strategies to build organisational legitimacy. However, this legitimation process represents a research area that remains difficult to understand in practice, especially in the context of social entrepreneurship. Therefore, the purpose and the outcome of this study include an enhanced understanding of the successful application of legitimation strategies and their respective effect on the different sources of organisational legitimacy through analysing the incorporation documents of 50 community interest companies in the UK. The practical consequences of this study provide social enterprises with concrete legitimation strategies to gain access to resources by convincing their resource-holding audiences that their activities are acceptable, desirable and appropriate for the benefit of the respective community. With this, new social venture failure can be reduced, which benefits not only the company in question but also ensures continued benefit for the affected community, area, society, residents and government. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 85 business administration, organizational science |
| Programme: | Business Administration MSc (60644) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/71511 |
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